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A General Recommended Way of Sitting Meditation by Dogen Zenji

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A General Recommended Way of Sitting Meditation by Dogen Zenji UPAYA ZEN CENTER WINTER ANGO DOGEN READER ON SHIKANTAZA LED BY ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX EIHEI DOGEN “POINT OF ZAZEN” “A GENERAL RECOMMENDED WAY OF SITTING” “BENDOWA” “KING OF SAMADHIS” From: Kazuaki Tanahashi The Point of Zazen Yaoshan, Great Master Hongdao, was sitting. A monk asked him, “In steadfast sitting, what do you think?” Yaoshan said, “Think not thinking.” “How do you think not thinking?” Yaoshan replied, “Beyond thinking.” Realizing these words of Yaoshan, you should investigate and receive the authentic transmission of steadfast sitting. This is the thorough study of steadfast sitting transmitted in the buddha way. Yaoshan is not the only one who spoke of thinking in steadfast sitting. His words, however, were extraordinary. Think not thinking is the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of thinking and the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of not thinking. The monk said, How do you think not thinking? However ancient not thinking is, still we are asked how to think it. Is there not thinking in steadfast sitting? How can going beyond steadfast sitting not be understood? One who is not shallow and foolish can ask and think about steadfast sitting. Yaoshan said, Beyond thinking. The activity of beyond thinking is crystal clear. In order to think not thinking, beyond thinking is always used. In beyond thinking, there is somebody that sustains you. Even if it is you who are sitting steadfast, you are not only thinking but are upholding steadfast sitting. When sitting steadfast, how can steadfast sitting think steadfast sitting? Thus, sitting steadfast is not buddha thought, dharma thought, enlightenment thought, or realization thought. This teaching was directly transmitted person to person from Shakyamuni Buddha to Yaoshan through thirty-six generations of ancestors. That means if you go beyond thirty-six generations from Yaoshan, you go back to Shakyamuni Buddha. What was authentically transmitted thus was think not thinking. However, careless students in recent times say, “The endeavor of zazen is completed when your heart is quiescent, as zazen is a place of calmness.” Such a view does not even reach that of students of the Lesser Vehicles, and is inferior to the teachings of human and deva vehicles. How can we call them students of buddha dharma? In present-day Song China, there are many practitioners who hold such views. The decline of the ancestral path is truly lamentable. There are also people who say, “Practicing zazen is essential for those who are beginners or those who have started studying recently, but it is not necessarily the activity of buddha ancestors. Activity in daily life is Zen, and sitting is Zen. In speaking and in silence, in motion and stillness, your body should be tranquil. Do not be concerned only with the practice of zazen.” Many of those who call themselves descendants of Linji hold such a view. They say so because they have not received the transmission of the right livelihood of buddha dharma. Who are beginners? Are there any who are not beginners? When do you leave the beginner’s mind? Know that in the definitive study of the buddha dharma, you engage in zazen and endeavor in the way. At the heart of the teaching is a practicing buddha who does not seek to become a buddha. As a practicing buddha does not become a buddha, the fundamental point is realized. The embodiment of buddha is not becoming a buddha. When you break through the snares and cages [of words and concepts], a sitting buddha does not hinder becoming a buddha. Right now, you have the ability to enter the realm of buddha and enter the realms of demons throughout the ages. Going forward and going backward, you personally have the freedom of overflowing ditches, overflowing valleys. * Mazu, Zen Master Daji of Jiangxi, studied with Nanyue, Zen Master Dahui. After intimately receiving Nanyue’s mind seal, Mazu was continuously engaged in zazen. One day Nanyue went up to him and said, “Virtuous one, what’s your intention in doing zazen?” Quietly ponder this question. Was Nanyue asking if Mazu had the intention of going beyond zazen, if he had an intention outside of zazen, or if he had no intention at all? Was Nanyue asking what kind of intention emerges while doing zazen? Investigate this thoroughly. Love a true dragon instead of loving a carved one. However, know that both carved and true dragons have the ability to produce clouds and rain. Do not treasure or belittle what is far away, but be intimate with it. Do not treasure or belittle what is near, but be intimate with it. Do not make light or a big deal of what you see with your eyes. Do not make light or a big deal of what you hear with your ears. Rather, illuminate your eyes and ears. Mazu said, “My intention is to become a buddha.” Clarify these words. What is the meaning of become a buddha? Does become a buddha mean being made buddha by another buddha, or buddha making oneself buddha? Is this the emergence of one or two buddhas? Is the intention to become buddha dropping off, or is dropping off the intention to become buddha? Does this mean that however many ways there are to become buddha, to be immersed in this intention to become a buddha is the intention to become buddha? Know that Mazu meant that zazen is inevitably the intention to become buddha, and that zazen is inevitably becoming buddha with intention. Intention is prior to becoming a buddha and after becoming a buddha. Intention is the very moment of becoming buddha. I ask you: How much of becoming buddha is being immersed in intention? This immersion is immersed in immersion. Immersion is always a direct expression of totally becoming buddha, every bit of completely intending to become buddha. Do not avoid even a bit of intention. If you avoid it, you lose your body and miss your life. When you lose your body and miss your life, this too is immersion in intention. Nanyue picked up a tile and started to polish it on a rock. Mazu said, “What are you doing?” Indeed, who does not see this as polishing a tile? Who can see this as polishing a tile? So Mazu asked, What are you doing? What are you doing? is no other than polishing a tile. Whether in this world or in another world, polishing a tile has never ceased. Do not regard your view as the only view. In any activity, there is always this question. Those who see buddha without knowing and understanding buddha see water without understanding water, and see mountains without knowing mountains. To hastily conclude that what’s happening in front of you is a dead end is not a study of buddha. Nanyue said, “I am polishing this tile to make a mirror.” Clarify these words. Polishing a tile to make a mirror has a deep meaning; it is not a false statement, but actualizes the fundamental point. Although a tile is a tile and a mirror is a mirror, there are many ways to investigate the meaning of polishing. An ancient bright mirror, a bright mirror, comes from polishing a tile. Without knowing that all mirrors come from polishing tiles, you will not see or hear the words, mouth, or breath of buddha ancestors. Mazu said, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a tile?” Indeed, by polishing a tile and doing nothing else, an iron-willed practitioner does not make a mirror. Even if making a mirror is not polishing a tile, a mirror is immediately there. Nanyue said, “How can you become a buddha by doing zazen?” Be clear that zazen is not working toward becoming a buddha. The teaching that becoming a buddha has nothing to do with zazen is evident. Mazu said, “Then, how so?” These words may seem to be asking one thing but in fact are asking another. It is like close friends meeting; each is intimate with the other. How so? addresses both zazen and becoming a buddha at the same time. Nanyue said, “When driving a cart, if it stops moving, do you whip the cart or the ox?” In regard to driving a cart, what is moving and what is stopping? Does it mean that water flowing is the cart moving and water not flowing is the cart moving? You can also say that flowing is water not moving. There is a time when water’s moving is not flowing. Thus, when you investigate the cart not moving, there is stopping and not stopping; it depends on time. The word stopping does not merely mean not moving. In regards to Nanyue’s words Do you whip the cart or the ox, is it that you sometimes hit the cart and sometimes hit the ox? Is hitting the cart the same or not the same as hitting the ox? In the secular world, there is no custom of hitting the cart. Although there is no custom of common people hitting the cart, in the buddha way there is the practice of hitting the cart; this is the eye of study. Even if you realize the practice of hitting the cart, it is not the same as hitting the ox. Study this thoroughly. Although hitting the ox is commonly practiced, you should investigate hitting the ox in the buddha way. Is it hitting a living buffalo, an iron ox, or a clay ox? Is it hitting with a whip, with the entire world, or with the whole mind? Is it hitting the marrow, hitting with the fist? How about fist hitting fist, and ox hitting ox? Mazu was silent.
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